Thursday, 1 October 2015

Today's giveaway and guest author is .....Hannah Fielding

Hannah Fielding is an incurable
romantic. The seeds for her writing career were sown in early childhood, spent
in Egypt, when she came to an agreement with her governess Zula: for each fairy
story Zula told, Hannah would invent and relate one of her own. Years later –
following a degree in French literature, several years of travelling in Europe,
falling in love with an Englishman, the arrival of two beautiful children and a
career in property development – Hannah decided after so many years of yearning
to write that the time was now. Today, she lives the dream: writing full time
at herhomes in Kent, England, and the South of France, where she dreams up
romances overlooking breath-taking views of the Mediterranean.

To date, Hannah has published
four novels: Burning Embers, ‘romance like Hollywood used to make’, set in
Kenya; the award-winning Echoes of Love, ‘an epic love story that is
beautifully told’ set in Italy; and Indiscretion and Masquerade (from the
Andalusian Nights Trilogy), her fieriest novels yet. She is currently working
on her forthcoming book, Legacy, the final title in the trilogy, which is due
to be published in spring 2016.

Hannah ~ welcome back to Jaffareadstoo...

How do you plan your
writing?

Having researched my facts thoroughly, I plan my novel down to the smallest detail. Planning ahead, I have found, makes the writing so much easier and therefore so much more enjoyable. I use my plan as a map. I never set out on a long journey by car without a map, and the same applies to my writing. By the time I write the first paragraph, I know the story, the characters, the setting, the mood – everything.

Do you have a set
routine?

I have a very rigid routine which has served well. Once I am
ready to write, I follow a daily routine that ensures I spend plenty of time
writing and editing the previous day’s writing, fuelled with fruit tea.

In winter I write indoors in my office, at a big wooden desk
overlooking the back lawn where sometimes I see wild rabbits hopping about. In
summer I write outdoors when I can – in the gazebo in Kent, or on the terrace
in France – because I love the smells and sounds and sights of nature. If I
want a change of scene, I take my notebook to a garden overlooking the sea, a
meadow carpeted with wildflowers or a cafe bustling with people where I can
find the description for one of my characters.

It usually takes me nine months to write a book from the
moment I begin my research to the time I write the word END at the bottom of
the last page… It’s a bit like having a baby!

What is the best
thing about writing?

The joy of escaping into romantic worlds! I have been a
romantic since childhood, when I loved nothing better than listening to
enchanting fairy stories on the knee of my governess. Now, I quite literally
live the dream – what a wonderful way to spend my time, lost in passionate,
evocative love stories.

What scares you the
most about writing?

I used to be frightened of how vulnerable publishing my
books would make me feel; but Masquerade
is my fourth book, and I have moved past that fear now and got used to ‘being
read’. Now, I suppose the biggest fear is running out of time to get all of the
stories in my mind onto paper. I feel I have so many books still to write.

What advice would you
give to anyone wanting to write but who is maybe too frightened to try?

Eleanor Roosevelt advised: ‘Do one thing every day that scares you.’ If you long to write, then make that one thing writing. You really have nothing to lose by writing if your motives are sound: if you write because you want to write for yourself, not to impress others or chase dreams of fame and fortune.

If fear is an issue, don’t share your writing at first. It took me a long time to pursue publication for my own books, and the time I spent alone with my writing was beneficial as I honed my craft and built a quiet confidence in what, and how, I write.

Can you tell us if
you have another novel planned?

Absolutely – many more! My next novel will publish next
spring. It’s called Legacy, and is
the third book in the Andalucian Nights Trilogy. The plot takes place in the
present day. The new generations of the three families involved in Indiscretion and Masquerade come together, and the story is mainly about healing
family rifts.

Greece and Egypt, two captivating countries with a huge
historical and culture legacy, are also on the map for settings in forthcoming
novels.

Hannah - thanks so much for sharing some of the secrets of your writing routine.

Jaffa and I look forward to reading more of your lovely books in the future.

London Wall Publishing
2015

A young writer becomes entangled in an illicit gypsy love
affair, pulling her into a world of secrets, deception and dark desire.

Summer, 1976. Luz de Rueda returns to her beloved Spain and
takes a job as the biographer of a famous artist. On her first day back in
Cádiz, she encounters a bewitching, passionate young gypsy, Leandro, who
immediately captures her heart, even though relationships with his kind are
taboo. Haunted by this forbidden love, she meets her new employer, the
sophisticated Andrés de Calderón. Reserved yet darkly compelling, he is totally
different to Leandro but almost the gypsy’s double. Both men stir unfamiliar
and exciting feelings in Luz, although mystery and danger surround them in ways
she has still to discover.

Luz must decide what she truly desires as glistening Cádiz,
with its enigmatic moon and whispering turquoise shores, seeps back into her
blood. Why is she so drawn to the wild and magical sea gypsies? What is behind
the old fortune-teller’s sinister warnings about ‘Gemini’? Through this maze of
secrets and lies, will Luz finally find her happiness… or her ruin?

Masquerade is a story of forbidden love, truth and trust.
Are appearances always deceptive?